David Brooks: Afghanistan is worth the U.S. effort

Monday

Mar 30, 2009 at 12:01 AMMar 30, 2009 at 10:23 AM

Afghanistan is one of the poorest, least educated and most corrupt nations on Earth. It is an infinitely complex and fractured society. It has powerful enemies in Pakistan, Iran and the drug networks working hard to foment chaos.

Afghanistan is one of the poorest, least educated and most corrupt nations on Earth. It is an infinitely complex and fractured society. It has powerful enemies in Pakistan, Iran and the drug networks working hard to foment chaos.

Moreover, we simply do not know how to modernize nations.

Every element of my skepticism was reinforced during a six-day tour of the country. Yet the people who work in Afghanistan make an overwhelming case that it can become a functional, terror-fighting society and that it is worth sending our sons and daughters into danger to achieve this.

In the first place, the Afghan people want what we want.

That makes relations between Afghans and foreigners relatively straightforward. Most military leaders prefer working with the Afghans to the Iraqis. The Afghans are warm and welcoming. They detest the insurgents and root for American success. "The Afghans have treated you as friends, allies and liberators from the very beginning," says Afghanistan's defense minister, Abdul Rahim Wardak.

Second, we're already well through the screwing-up phase of our operation. At first, the Western nations underestimated the insurgency. They tried to centralize power in Kabul. They tried to fight a hodgepodge, multilateral war.

Those and other errors have been exposed, and coalition forces are learning. When you interview impressive leaders, such as Brig. Gen. John Nicholson of Regional Command South, Col. John Agoglia of the Counterinsurgency Training Center and Chris Alexander of the U.N., you see how relentless they are at criticizing their own operations. Thanks to people like that, the coalition will stumble toward success, having tried the alternatives.

Third, we've got our priorities right. Armies love killing bad guys. Aid agencies love building schools. But the most important part of any aid effort is governance and law and order. It's reforming the police, improving the courts, training local civil servants and building prisons.

In Afghanistan, every Western agency is finally focused on this issue, from a Canadian reconstruction camp in Kandahar to the top U.S. military commander, Gen. David McKiernan.

Fourth, the quality of Afghan leadership is improving. This is a relative thing. President Hamid Karzai is detested by much of the U.S. military. Some provincial governors are drug dealers on the side. But as the U.N.'s Kai Eide told the Security Council, "The Afghan government is today better and more competent than ever before." Reformers now lead the most important ministries and competent governors run key provinces.

Fifth, the U.S. is finally taking this war seriously. Up until now, insurgents have had free rein in vast areas of southern Afghanistan. The infusion of 17,000 more U.S. troops will change that. The Obama administration also promises a civilian surge to balance the military push.

Sixth, Pakistan is finally on the agenda. For the past few years, the U.S. has let Pakistan get away with murder. The insurgents train, organize and get support from there. "It's very hard to deal with a cross-border insurgency on only one side of the border," says Alexander of the U.N. The Obama strategic review recognizes this.

Finally, it is simply wrong to say that Afghanistan is a hopeless 14th-century basket case. This country had decent institutions before the communist takeover. It hasn't fallen into chaos, the way Iraq did, because it has a culture of communal discussion and a respect for village elders. The Afghans have embraced the democratic process with enthusiasm.

I finish this trip still skeptical but also infected by the optimism of the truly impressive people working in Afghanistan. And one other thing: After the trauma in Iraq, it would have been easy for the U.S. to withdraw into exhaustion and realism. Instead, President Barack Obama is doubling down on the very principles that some dismiss as neocon fantasy: the idea that this nation has the capacity to use military and civilian power to promote democracy, nurture civil society and rebuild failed states.

Foreign-policy experts can promote one doctrine or another, but this energetic and ambitious response -- amid economic crisis and war weariness -- says something profound about America's DNA.